Die Hard
Composite Score: 83.73
Starring: Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia, Reginald VelJohnson, Paul Gleason, De’voreaux White, William Atherton, Hart Bochner, Alexander Godunov, and Clarence Gilyard Jr.
Director: John McTiernan
Writers: Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza
Genres: Action, Thriller
MPAA Rating: R
Box Office: $141.60 million worldwide
Why should you Watch This Film?
Die Hard is the film adaptation of Roderick Thorp’s novel Nothing Lasts Forever about a New York police officer who happens to be attending a Christmas party in Los Angeles that gets taken over by European terrorists/thieves. The film stars Bruce Willis as its hero John McClane, supported by Bonnie Bedelia as his estranged wife Holly who invited him to the Christmas party at her office in Nakatomi tower, Reginald VelJohnson as L.A. beat cop Al Powell who serves as McClane’s less than enthusiastic man on the ground when the police arrive on the scene, and De’voreaux White as McClane’s wisecracking limo driver, Argyle, who sticks around just in case things don’t work out with John’s reunion with Holly. Alan Rickman lends his talents as the leader of the villains, Hans Gruber, with the help of Alexander Godunov’s Karl and Clarence Gilyard Jr.’s Theo. The film also received four Oscar nominations for its technical achievements in sound, editing, and visual effects. It is one of the greatest action films of all time and fully deserving of a spot among the Greatest Films of All Time.
Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?
The biggest knock against this film might be its closing scene – Al Powell shooting one of the last attackers when he runs out of the building. This moment is heralded as a triumph because he had sworn to not raise his gun against anyone ever again after shooting a kid who he mistook for an armed assailant at some point in the past. From a modern perspective, a cop learning to shoot again is not quite the heartwarming buddy narrative that the film’s ending and the music that plays over the closeup of Powell’s smoking gun makes it out to be. Does this scene ruin the film? By no means, it just taints those closing moments a bit. Otherwise, you really should watch Die Hard, especially if you’ve never seen it.
So wait, why should you Watch This Film?
Die Hard is the action film that provides the transition from the action films of the 70s and 80s to the action films of the “modern” era. Chock full of references to past films and even brief snide remarks that could almost be read as jokes, Die Hard’s script almost presupposes the modern era of action films while also being true to its roots and the films it references. The lone hero facing down an entire posse of villains threatening his family draws heavily on the tropes of pre-60s Western films and even more recently the action films like Rambo and Dirty Harry. At the same time, the villains utilize modern technology and have more intricate goals than just anti-American terrorism, making them more like the villains of modern action films than the anarchists, hicks, and criminals of the classics. Even if you don’t think that Die Hard is the best action film of all time, you can’t deny its transitional impact on action films and its sheer entertainment value.
Lending to the entertainment side of the film are the leading men – Willis and Rickman. Bruce Willis, known mostly at this point for his role in the detective comedy series Moonlighting, establishes himself immediately as the new action hero in this film. Jumping down elevator shafts, throwing himself from the top of a skyscraper, and crawling through air conditioning ducts, Willis’s McClane goes above and beyond in his pursuit of thwarting Gruber and his gang and rescuing his wife from their clutches. It’s an impressive physical and charismatic performance, with Willis taking a brutal beating and maintaining a dark sense of humor throughout the entire film. Opposite Willis’s hero, Alan Rickman plays one of the most iconic action villains ever as Hans Gruber – another essentially breakout role in this film. Gruber is every bit the witty match for McClane, seeming to have planned for everything and having very little concern at all for the lives of his hostages – he’s a truly brutal villain, even if he has very little actual action moments. The verbal interplay of hero and villain helped turn both men into household names very soon after.
Led by breakout performances from Bruce Willis and Alan Rickman, Die Hard perfectly encapsulates the classic tropes of older action films while also playing forward into modern action films with its over-the-top explosions and stunts and sprinkling of dark comedy to push the whole thing to the next level. Its poorly-aged closing scene does little to detract from the rest of the film, and it should be on your must-watch list if it isn’t already. This film is currently available to stream with a Starz subscription or to rent on most other streaming platforms if you’d like to give it a go sometime soon.
